Africa Mercy mission takes Rye couple to Congo

Thursday

Apr 3, 2014 at 2:00 AM

RYE — At nearly 500 feet long, the Africa Mercy is the world's largest charity hospital ship. Kevin and Patti Cook first heard about the ship at Bethany Church in Greenland when a man spoke of mission trips that were available aboard the vessel.

Kevin and Patti Cook first heard about the ship at Bethany Church in Greenland when a man spoke of mission trips that were available aboard the vessel.

Patti said she remembered seeing her husband's eyes light up at the thought of being able to help those abroad while living onboard a ship with volunteers from around the world.

At first, Kevin, a former accountant, was unsure of what use his skills would be on a mission trip. But the ship needed people of all trades to function, and he was placed in the role of finance director. "There are people with many different trades — electricians, plumbers, cooks, even a hairdresser," he said.

It was in 2004 that the couple began volunteering their time to Mercy Ships and they have since traveled to Liberia, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Guinea and most recently to Congo.

"The African people are very warm and welcoming," Kevin said. "They're incredibly grateful."

Mercy Ships is an international faith-based organization "with a mission to increase access to health care throughout the world."

Kevin boarded the Africa Mercy for his latest stint of volunteering in November, while Patti waited until January to join him after she completed charity work she was doing with Operation Christmas Child.

"I got to be here for all the snow," she said unenthusiastically.

The Cooks said life on the Africa Mercy was like living in a floating community. Anchored at port, the ship functioned as a hospital for the people of Congo in need of free medical aid, but it also housed a crew of more than 400 people.

"You get to know your neighbors very well because the walls are paper thin," Patti said of their living quarters. Rooms for couples were generally 10 feet by 20 feet, but there were also 26 larger family cabins and tightly packed communal rooms for singles.

"It's like living in a little city," she said.

Patti said there was a central area of the crews' part of the ship known as Town Square. Here, crew members (medical, technical and administrative) from 34 different nations were able to mingle amongst each other, send mail at the onboard Post Office, grab something to eat at the café, shop for edible reminders of home in the gift store or indulge in a Starbucks coffee.

Patti has served in human resources and at the Post Office before, but this last time she worked in the onboard Starbucks.

"I served the crew, but I also served the people of Congo," she said. Patti explained her representation of how the ship functioned as a heart with many gears inside, all working toward the same goal.

"We're doing humanitarian work, but we're also doing God's work because he sent us there," she said.

It was the love of Christ that brought the Cooks and others aboard the Africa Mercy.

"(The patients) are given their lives back, but they're also offered the hope of Christ," she said. "We're there to show God's love."

In addition to serving as a 1,200-square-foot floating hospital, complete with five operating rooms and 82 patient beds, crew members also participated in a number of community outreach programs. The Cooks said the crew participates in Mercy Ministries and visits orphanages, schools for the deaf, prisoners and more.

Patti recalled meeting several patients who had disfiguring scars or tumors and were often young children.

"You see things there that you just don't see here," she said. "We are so blessed in America to have the health care system we do. You don't see that stuff here."

The Cooks have lived in Rye since 2000 and said coming home is always an adjustment.

"It's really two extremes," Patti said. "It can be hard to wrap your head around."

Kevin is always stunned when he re-enters a large supermarket for the first time and sees long aisles jammed solely with junk food.

"In Africa, that can be the size of their whole store, if they even have one," he said.

The Cooks said the poverty the people of Congo live in is "eye-opening," but the landscape of the country itself is lush and beautiful.

Though Patti remarked about the beauty of wild-growing hibiscus flowers, she also said some families live in garbage dumps or sleep on the floor of makeshift huts as rats crisscross the floor.

"You'll see poverty like you've never seen before," she said.

When she's not in international waters volunteering her time, Patti works each summer at the Rye Congregational Church. She said students from the Hampton Falls Vacation Bible School recently raised more than $2,000 to purchase young patients benefiting from Mercy Ship parting backpacks filled with supplies and a "My Story Book" album to use as a journal during their stay.

Patti was moved during her last stay when she found the children utilizing those gifts.

"They really made an impact," she said.

Those interested in volunteering or learning more about Mercy Ships can visit them online at www.mercyships.org.

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